Microsoft has announced the winner of its 2013 Apprentice of the Year competition.

Jamie Sauvarin from BrightStarr in Eashing was chosen from the hundreds of apprentices employed by Microsoft and its partner businesses, and was given his award by employment minister Mark Hoban, at a ceremony at the House of Commons this week.

Microsoft partners with training providers QA, Firebrand, Baltic and Remit and IT businesses across the UK to deliver the apprenticeships.

Sauvarin said, “I’ve really enjoyed my time at BrightStarr so far and I’m so happy to have won this award. My apprenticeship has made me even keener to work in IT and has given me a chance to get the skills I need to do that."

Sauvarin was commended in particular for handling the difficulty of moving to a different training provider halfway through his apprenticeship.

This resulted in it taking longer than anticipated for him to complete his learning, "but throughout he maintained a positive attitude towards the difficulties, all of which were out of his control", said BrightStarr. The company is an IT consultancy and Microsoft SharePoint specialist.

The Microsoft apprenticeship programme is part of the company’s Get On programme, which aims to help 300,000 British 16-24 year olds into work by 2015. As part of Get On, Microsoft has committed to creating 4,000 apprenticeships by 2015.

Hoban said, "We rely on businesses like Microsoft opening their doors to aspirational young people, giving them the opportunity to gain the skills and training they need to get into work."

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